David Cooper (jurist)

David Cooper

David Cooper (1821- c. 1873) was an American lawyer and jurist. He served from 1850-53 as an Associate Justice of the Minnesota (Territory) Supreme Court.

Biography

Cooper was born on July 22, 1821, in Frederick County, Maryland. In 1831, he moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended Pennsylvania College. He later studied law in the office of his brother. He was admitted to practice law in 1845 and practiced in Louistown, Pennsylvania. In 1848, he canvassed a portion of Pennsylvania for the Whig Party.

As a result of this service to the Whig Party, Cooper was appointed by President Zachary Taylor as an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Territorial Supreme Court on March 15, 1849. He was confirmed by the Senate on March 19, 1849. He held the office from July 14, 1850, to April 7, 1853.^[1]

Cooper later practiced law in St. Paul, Minnesota, until 1864, when he moved to Nevada Territory, where he made mining titles the specialty of his law practice. He later moved to Utah and died a patient in a Salt Lake City inebriate asylum at an age of about 52.

Criticism by Legal Profession and Newspapers

Along with Chief Justice Aaron Goodrich, Cooper was frequently criticized by members of the legal profession as unfit and incompetent. However, no charge of corruption or malfeasance was ever made against either of them. After an unfavorable editorial regarding Justice Cooper appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer newspaper in 1851, Justice Cooper's brother, Joseph Cooper, assaulted the newspaper editor, James M. Goodhue, with a knife and inflicted two wounds. Goodhue responded by firing a pistol at Cooper, who received a shot in his groin. Joseph Cooper died approximately two months later, and it was said that the pistol wound had hastened his death.

References

↑ Minnesota State Law Library-David Cooper

Sources

Minnesota State Law Library, Biography of the Justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Available online at: http://mn.gov/lawlib/judgebio.html#cooper retrieved 1/4/14.
Douglas A. Hedin, ed., Documents Regarding the Nominations, Confirmations, Recess Appointments, Commissions, Oaths of Office, Removals, and Terms of the Ten Justices who Served on the Supreme Court of Minnesota Territory, 1849-1858 Available online at:http://www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org/assets/Documents%20Part%202-A.pdf
Clark Bell, "The Supreme Court of Minnesota", Vol. 17, Medico-Legal Journal (1869), reprinted at: http://www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org/assets/Bell%20Medico-Legal%20Journal%20(1899).pdf
L. Hubbard, W. Murray, J. Baker, W. Upham, Minnesota in Three Centuries, 1655-1908, Vol 2, pp. 427–28, 449-50 (1908). Available at: https://books.google.com/books?id=mGgLAQAAIAAJ&dq=justice%20david%20cooper%20minnesota%20supreme%20court&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://onetuberadio.com/2014/01/13/a-golden-age-of-journalism-and-politics/

Minnesota Supreme Court Justices

Territorial (1849–1858)	Goodrich Cooper Meeker Fuller Hayner Chatfield Sherburne Welch R. Nelson Flandrau

State (since 1858)	Flandrau Atwater Emmett T. Wilson McMillan Berry Gilfillan Ripley Young Cornell Mitchell Clark Dickinson Vanderburgh Collins Buck Canty Start C. Brown Lovely Lewis Douglas Jaggard Elliott O'Brien Simpson Bunn P. Brown Holt Hallam Schaller Quinn Dibell S. Wilson Stone Hilton Olsen Loring Devaney Olson H. Peterson H. Gallagher Streissguth Pirsig Youngdahl T. Gallagher Magney Matson W. Christianson F. Gallagher Knutson T. Christianson Dell M. Nelson Murphy Loevinger Otis Rogosheske Sheran C.D. Peterson F. Kelly Todd MacLaughlin Yetka Scott Wahl Amdahl Simonett G. Kelley Coyne Popovich Keith Tomljanovich Ogren Page P. Anderson Stringer Blatz Gilbert R. Anderson Ericksen Meyer Hanson G.B. Anderson Gildea Dietzen Magnuson Stras Wright Lillehaug Hudson Chutich McKeig

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